At It Again In Parkland

September 04, 1988|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

We affluent Parklanders are at it again: forcing the Parkland teachers to have to threaten to strike in order to get a hunk of the loot.

Why do we do it? Is it some handed-down American custom: The more we get, the more we want to deny others the same thing? Don't look now, but there's a teacher shortage looming. You see, young people are becoming reluctant to get into something where they have to beg and plead every three years or so to get some money.

How will Parkland be able to continue to attractthe best and the brightest when we don't want to pay them? In addition to trying to teach some of our offspring the essentials of getting along in the world, do you realize they spend more time with our kids than we do? Isn't that cruel and unusual punishment worth something?

We, in our megabucks homes and luxury cars should take the lead in paying teachers; not dismally and reluctantly following. . . and way behind at that.

We can start right now to attract the best, and to retain the best, by contacting School Board members and telling them to get on with it and pay these people some decent money. To paraphrase the California Nurses Association, whose members just got a 21 percent pay increase over 34 months, "As people look at careers, they'll be able to look at starting salaries and maximum salaries that are competitive with other careers."

Look at it this way. Our tax increase probably wouldn't be as much as one of those family meals that we partake of, quite frequently, at one of those posh restaurants.